The public is hearing Donald Trump loud and clear.

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Listen To You Tell Me Texas Friday 12/11/15

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The ever-trenchant Victor Davis Hanson has a real zinger of a line in his column Thursday (12/10/15) at National Review Online. He says,

“The world we are told about by our government bears no resemblance to what we see and hear every day.”

Thus explains, says Hanson, the resilience of the Donald Trump campaign. While the received wisdom of the elites has it that Trump is just one-bombastic-bridge-too-far-statement away from implosion, his poll numbers just keep going up.

Victor Davis Hanson is on to something. What we hear from the government – indeed what we have been hearing from the government for most of a decade – has little to do with what we can see with our own eyes.

The administration is trumpeting a five percent unemployment rate. Yet we all know people who are unemployed, under-employed or who have simply given up. That’s because 94 million working age Americans – nearly a third of the country – are out of the workforce and thus not counted as unemployed.

We were told that ISIS is “contained.” The very next day, ISIS went on a coordinated killing spree in Paris during which 130 people died and 368 were injured.

We were told shortly thereafter that the single biggest threat facing us is “climate change.” Within hours, two Islamic radicals went on a shooting rampage in San Bernadino, California, killing 14 and wounding another 20.

The administration uses each new atrocity to call for stricter gun control. Yet time and again horrific gun crimes are carried out in jurisdictions with the most stringent gun laws – a fact that the administration vigorously ignores.

We’ve been repeatedly told that the economy is “recovering.” Yet for the first time in the modern era, there are more business closures every year in America than there are business start-ups. Americans don’t need a government report to know that they are making less money and that there is less opportunity for them to better themselves.

Gay marriage became the law of the land not by the legislative action of elected representatives but rather as a result of the opinions of five unelected judges. As a result, millions of Americans now believe that their vote is of little practical consequence.

We were told that the “Affordable” Care Act would lower the cost of health care. Yet hiring is being curtailed, hours are being cut and premiums taken from paychecks are going up; all while deductibles are rising to levels so high as to render most people de facto uninsured.

Donald Trump is gaining in the polls rather than imploding by loudly and effectively voicing the pent-up fear, frustration and anger felt by ordinary Americans — Americans who no longer believe a single thing their government tells them.

Back during the summer, I, too, was certain that the Trump campaign would eventually burn itself out. Today, even though I won’t bet on him I’m afraid to bet against him.

What that means for the GOP, the 2016 election and ultimately the republic itself remains to be seen.